Women's Health Shortcuts

UCSF Community Looks Forward to Construction of Medical Center at Mission Bay

Thursday, September 16, 2010

By Lisa Cisneros

Locating the children’s, women’s and cancer hospital complex near the booming biomedical teaching and research campus at UCSF Mission Bay will support UCSF’s drive to speed the translational medicine from laboratory discoveries into novel treatments for patients.

Members of the UCSF community are energized and excited about achieving a major milestone in the decade-long effort to develop UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay.

“Today’s action, the culmination of a decade of work, is one of the most important milestones in the history of UCSF and UCSF Medical Center,” said Mark Laret, chief executive officer. “With the approval to begin constructing these new facilities, we will address clinical capacity problems at all our sites, we will create modern facilities to better meet the needs of our patients, we will meet the requirements of the state seismic law that limits our use of Mount Zion, and we will help fulfill the promise of the Mission Bay campus to facilitate the translation of research into clinical care.”

UCSF Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, and Laret sat down recently to discuss the significance of the project in a video. Watch the video.

For Cindy Lima, executive director of the project, the vote represents a victory for the many people involved in planning and preparing for the new medical center to be located on 14.5 acres near the existing life sciences campus at Mission Bay.

“This approval is a testament to the dedication and hard work of hundreds of people over many years,” Lima said. “Patients, faculty, and staff; planners, designers and builders; neighbors, civic leaders, and government agencies; advisors, voters, and philanthropists—each has been essential to making this vision a reality. It’s been absolutely remarkable.”

UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay will be no ordinary hospital when it opens its doors in 2014. The integrated hospital complex will house women, children and cancer services – three areas in which UCSF excels – in a modern medical facility that will be patient- and family-centered, sophisticated and environmentally sustainable.

Getting UCSF to this phase of project development has been no small task, Lima points out. She singled out her colleague Stuart Eckblad, a licensed architect and director of design and construction, for leading a team of seasoned construction project managers and advisors. Eckblad himself brings more than 30 years’ experience in the planning, design and construction of new hospitals and outpatient facilities to the project.

Everyone with Internet access can witness UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay taking shape in San Francisco via a live webcam.

And all members of the UCSF community will be able to join in the excitement of the groundbreaking of the new medical center at an employee and community celebration on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at the Mission Bay campus. The family-friendly event, which is modeled after a community festival, will feature a farmers’ market, performing arts, tours of the mock-up rooms for the new medical center and information booths focusing on health, wellness and sustainability.

‘Magnificent Happening’

For Diana Farmer, MD, surgeon-in-chief at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, who was among faculty and staff to spend untold hours meeting in teams to design the best healing environment for patients, the Regents’ vote represents a significant turning point for UCSF and the city. She’s excited that boys and girls will have an entirely new hospital built especially for them at Mission Bay.

“Having a true children’s hospital for the first time in San Francisco and at UCSF will be a transformation for patients, the institution, and the region,” Farmer said. “It is truly a magnificent happening.”

Similarly, Nancy Milliken, MD, director of the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health and vice dean of the UCSF School of Medicine, is looking forward to the opportunities to advance patient care, teaching and research at Mission Bay.

“After months of dreaming and planning, it is wonderful to pass this milestone on the way to having a women’s specialty hospital carefully designed to facilitate the work of multidisciplinary teams in providing women with comprehensive reproductive health care throughout their lifespan,” she said. “The proximity of world-class pediatric and cancer specialists not only creates the optimal environment for excellence in patient care and safety for women, but also the best environment in which to teach our trainees the benefits and principles of collaborative teamwork.”

Campus leaders believe that by expanding clinical services at Mission Bay, UCSF will be able to build upon its tradition of innovation and collaboration, strengthening interdisciplinary education and fostering more opportunities to translate scientific research into benefits for patients.

“With the Regents’ approval of the financing plan for our medical center at Mission Bay, we’ll not only be able to break ground for the construction of new hospitals, we’ll be able to make breakthroughs for patients beyond what we ever imagined,” said Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy.

“Think of it—hundreds of the world’s top clinicians and scientists, working together at Mission Bay in technically sophisticated facilities, and all of them focused on advancing human health. Marry this with our work on Parnassus and at Mount Zion and our potential as a whole campus to translate science to care is tremendous.”

UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay will provide a new training ground to further the University’s efforts to develop new models of team-based, interdisciplinary care that capitalizes on the expertise and perspectives of all of the health professionals at UCSF, said Kathy Dracup, RN, dean of the UCSF School of Nursing.

“The hospital at Mission Bay will be a unique opportunity for us to design and build a structure that will reflect the core values of UCSF: excellence in patient care and interprofessional collaboration in our educational programs and research,” Dracup said.

Milliken believes the new medical center will set a new standard for care. “Personalized medicine will be advanced through the use of new diagnostic technologies and individualized treatment options that emerges from our research laboratories and by a healing environment designed with natural light, rooftop gardens, meditation spaces, and welcoming family gathering areas.”